Lady Vols Rebound From Chattanooga Loss To Overcome Georgia Tech
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Tennessee rebounded from a season-opening loss at Chattanooga to secure the first win of Holly Warlick's career as a head coach with a 71-54 victory at Georgia Tech in the new McCamish Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. Freshman Bashaara Graves had her first-career double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds in her second game as a Lady Vol.
Tennessee (1-1) used a 24-2 run in the second half to pull away from Georgia Tech (0-1) to salvage the final game of the season-opening two-game trip.
Sophomore Cierra Burdick tallied a career-high 16 points, as she made her first six shots of the game.
Tennessee scored 18 consecutive points, as part of that 24-2 run, midway through the second half after Georgia Tech had rallied to within two points with 15:25 left in the game. UT's zone defense and sharp-shooting helped extend a lead of 45-43 to 63-43 with 8:18 left in the game as Simmons finished a 3-point play.
Freshman Jasmine Jones played strong defense as she grabbed 11 rebounds. The Lady Vols outrebounded the Jackets, 48-43 and outscored them 40-24 in the paint.
The Yellow Jackets were led by Tyaunna Marshall, who had 18 points and eight rebounds.
Georgia Tech used a 13-0 run to start the second half to get as close as they would in the game's final 38 minutes.
Tennessee opened a 15-point lead at halftime, 45-30, as Burdick (15) and Graves (14) combined for 29 of UT's points. Burdick made all six of her shots in the first half. The Lady Vols' zone defense befuddled the Yellow Jackets as they had 13 turnovers and shot just 39 percent.
With a 21-16 lead, Graves reeled off three consecutive layups to give the Lady Vols their first first double-figure lead of the game at 27-16 with 7:54 left in the first half.
Tennessee continued to pull away in the final minutes of the second half as UT outscored 15-8 over the final 4:32 as Burdick hit three shots late int he half.
Tennessee returns home to host Rice on Thursday at 7 p.m. That game will be available on UTSports.com with live streaming video and audio on the Vol Network.